THE National Health Service celebrates its 70th anniversary on July 5.

In Alloa there were two hospitals that came under the new NHS in 1948 and became part of the Western Region Hospital Board to be run by the Board of Management of Stirling and Clackmannan.

These were the County Hospital in Ashley Terrace, and Sauchie Hospital on Parkhead Road, known locally as Sunnyside Brae.

The costs of running these hospitals was to be met by the state and access to them was no longer the preserve of those who could afford to pay for treatment.

Known as the Clackmannan County Infectious Diseases Hospital, or Combination Hospital, it was on the recommendation of the County’s first Medical Officer that Sauchie Hospital was built.

It was designed by local Alloa architects John Melvin & Son and construction began in 1893 on a parcel of land feued by Walter John Francis Erskine, 12th Earl of Mar, at Parkhead Farm and completed in April 1895 at a cost of just over £8300. It was thought to be the first of its kind in Scotland.

Statistics show that by 1930 around 2000 patients had been treated there. Over the years many additions were made to the hospital including a lodge in 1899, a laundry block in 1901, and a doctor’s room as well as cubicles for servants in 1914.

The council added a new tuberculosis pavilion and huts in 1916 and in 1938 a north block was added. The running of it was handed over by the NHS on Saturday, July 5, 1948.

In the mid-2000s, the hospital was demolished to make way for the new Community Hospital, although the lodge was left. Today it houses the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Just down the brae, another hospital was built during the late Victorian period, but it was not the first on site.

In 1868, Walter Henry Erskine, 11th Earl of Mar, founded an earlier hospital. He had gifted £300 towards its construction which began in February 1867 and was opened on October 1 the following year.

It was designed for medical and surgical treatment for the people of Clackmannanshire. The detached building came under the care of the local authority and took patients with infectious diseases while Mrs Bain cared for those suffering from fevers in a different part of the hospital.

Funds were raised by voluntary contribution and the Ladies Finance Committee was headed up by Erskine’s wife, Mary Anne. The Earl of Mar was the hospital’s patron.

By the 1890s the hospital was struggling with capacity, so a new hospital was built by Glasgow architect Robert Bryden. Construction began in 1897 and was opened in 1899 as the County Accidents Hospital. Miss Catherine Forrester-Paton, whose parents had died and left her a fortune, paid for the build and equipped it.

At the turn of the 20th century the hospital could accommodate around 19 patients but by the mid-1940s this had trebled. In 1954 an outpatient department was added along with a series of other buildings, by which time it had come under the auspices of the NHS.

Houses have now replaced this hospital, which was demolished in 2010.